University of Houston Athletics
Quotes from Coach Dimel
9/18/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 18, 2001
Houston, Texas - On the Opponent Texas: "They have been a very opportunistic team this season. Meaning when other teams make mistakes, they take advantage of those situations and put points on the board. That is the sign of a good football team." "As we go into the ball game, our strategies need to be - to eliminate the unforced errors and thus eliminate the opportunities that they have to score off of our mistakes."
Houston's Strategy for Saturday: "We want to go into this game and be more balanced with what we are doing. We have to establish a run game and pass the football well. Efficiency will be really important for us in this game. The pass /run ratio in this game will be very close to 50/50. The first thing for defense will be to stop the run game, then become aggressive and try to create some turnovers then try to stop the big threats they have in their passing game. We need to come out of the gate and play well early and have success in the first quarter. Early play will be crucial for our ball club."
Coach Dimel on the response of players to the cancellation of last weeks game: "Everyone has gone through an emotional roller coaster with their players over the past week whether they had a game or not. Last week on Wednesday we were told that we were going to play Georgia. Then at 2:30pm on Thursday the players were told that they were not going to play them. That was a quick emotional roller coaster for the players . Having this ball game this week is a great way for our team to get emotionally healthy because it is such an important ball game for us."
Coach Dimel on Pressure: "This ball game I expect our guys to play extremely hard and we have a lot of motivations to win this football game. We know what a win would mean to our program. That is the biggest thrust right now."
Coach Dimel on playing for such a big crowd: "The venue will be outstanding, to have Robertson full like that will be great and to have it on national television will be even better. We have to go out understanding that we are the team that should play loosely, have fun and be excited about it."
Coach Dimel on what it would be like to pull off an upset: "I think that it is really important for us to break through and win against a good quality team. Once we do that, the program will be on its way to where we are headed at this point. It was apparent to me after the Rice game that we were so close to breaking through and playing at the level that our football teams have been at in the past."
Coach Dimel on a position that you match up well Texas: "Our receivers against their defensive backs, I think is a good matchup. The level of talent is very high in both of those areas."
Leif Penn on leaving a mark on the program: "Everyone when they come in as Freshman want people to remember them. When we leave after our senior year we want their to be something to remember us by. We want people to see that in 2001 we beat Texas. We want to be able to sign better recruits, the more games we win the more people will want to come and play here."
Leif Penn on the key to attacking the Texas defense: "Texas has a lot of balance. The other teams that they played were either running or passing, we need to keep them off balance by mixing the running and the passing. When ever we get an opportunity to go for the kill we need to be able to jump on it, because our defense is able to create turnovers - it will be how we capitalize on that, that will win the game."
Leif Penn on what motivates him to play hard against Texas: "We are playing that #14 team in the nation on national television. It doesn't get much better than that. Everything that you do positive in this game, you will be remembered by. It is the first time that they are coming on our campus to play so we have to be up for this game. When you consider yourself a good team you have to show others by beating good teams. We'll have to show everyone that we can pull it out."
